--"No, _Rose_, no," repeated Mr. _Agnew_, putting aside his Wife, who
woulde have interceded for me,--"her Teares have noe Effect on me
now--they proceed, not from a contrite Heart, they are the Tears of a
Child that cannot brook to be chidden for the Waywardnesse in which it
persists."
"You doe me Wrong everie Way," I sayd; "I came to you willing and
desirous to doe what you yourselfe woulde, this Morning, have had me
doe."
"But in how strange a Way!" cried he. "At a Time when anie Renewal of
your Intercourse requires to be conducted with the utmost Delicacy, and
even with more Shew of Concession on your Part than, an Hour ago, I
should have deemed needfulle,--to propose an abrupt, trivial
Communication about an old Key!"
"It needed not to have been abrupt," I sayd, "nor yet trivial; for I
meant it to have beene exprest kindlie."
"You said not that before," answered he.
"Because you gave me not Time.--Because you chid me and frightened me."
He stood silent, some While, upon this; grave, yet softer, and
mechanicallie playing with the Key, which he had taken from my Hand.
_Rose_ looking in his Face anxiouslie. At lengthe, to disturbe his
Reverie, she playfulle tooke it from him, saying, in School-girl Phrase,
"This is the Key of the Kingdom!"
"Of the Kingdom of Heaven, it mighte be!" exclaimed _Roger_, "if we
knew how to use it arighte! If we knew but how to fit it to the Wards
of _Milton's_ Heart!--there's the Difficultie. . . . a greater one,
poor _Moll_, than you know; for hitherto, alle the Reluctance has been
on your Part. But now . . ."
"What now?" I anxiouslie askt.
"We were talking of you but as you rejoyned us," sayd Mr. _Agnew_, "and
I was telling _Rose_ that hithertoe I had considered the onlie Obstacle
to a Reunion arose from a false Impression of your own, that Mr.
_Milton_ coulde not make you happy. But now I have beene led to the
Conclusion that you cannot make _him_ soe, which increases the
Difficultie."